Ancestors
While our writing group continues to find our writing inspiration in photos (see Snapshots and Ingenuity) I have been thinking a lot about Not My Ancestors by Bettina Judd. I know every time I look in the mirror or at my son that blood will tell. Certainly physical traits are passed on and so many habits of mind and language. Of course, sometimes those hard-won skills were not meant to be passed on because they hoped we would live in a different world, a better world. I know very little of my father’s maternal family because my grandmother died when I was in high school after a long battle with cancer and my father died four years ago after a long battle with dementia. While the details vary I suspect the fact of lost family stories is very common. However, thanks to some cousins I have located some photos and details about that branch of the family that certainly touches on an interesting point in history. This photo features my father’s maternal grandfather Sam Cook who once worked his family farm with horses while his younger brother Ike (see below) ran a gas station and car dealership in Palmyra, NY. There is a lot of writing inspiration to be found in this exploration of history, family, and the legacy left by our ancestors.
